Fast-accumulating data seem to indicate that our close cousins, the Neanderthals, were much more similar to us than imagined even a decade ago. But did they have anything like modern speech and language? And if so, what are the implications

There is not much doubt they had the capacity for speech and that we still carry a tiny bit of Neanderthal DNA. The Denisovian man and the Neanderthal were strong and able to function well in their environments, and thanks to the genetic links, made it possible for the modern human to thrive.